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Justice

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<p>We have a longstanding relationship with the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT),
and we recognise the crucial role that they, and other Voluntary and Community Sector
(VCS) organisations, carry out in supporting offenders and delivering rehabilitative
services. I am pleased to note, too, that PACT have recently been awarded the contract
for the provision of family engagement services for the female estate.</p><p>We will
continue to engage with PACT as we take forward Lord Farmer’s recommendations as part
of our wider prison reform agenda.</p>

<p>The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is not aware of having received any applications to
date for public funding for representation at an inquest from the families of the
victims of Stephen Port.</p><p> </p><p>When assessing such applications in general,
the Director of Legal Aid Casework (DLAC) must have regard to the Lord Chancellor’s
guidance set out under section 4(3) of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of
Offender’s Act (LASPO) 2012. The criteria applied by the Legal Aid Agency are outlined
under Section 10 of LASPO. The DLAC must also determine whether an applicant meets
the financial eligibility test as provided in the Civil Legal Aid (Financial Resources
and Payment for Services) Regulations 2013, or decide whether to waive financial eligibility
and/or contribution to costs in whole or in part, as well as satisfy the merits criteria
set out in the Civil Legal Aid (Merits Criteria) Regulations 2013.</p><p> </p><p>An
application for legal aid may be submitted to the LAA in order for such a determination
to be made.</p>

<p>The Ministry of Justice is aware that there have been instances of crowdfunding
to cover the cost of legal representation at inquest proceedings, for example at the
inquests into the deaths of those who died in the Birmingham pub bombings and the
inquests of the victims of Stephen Port, but the Department does not routinely collect
information on instances of crowdfunding.</p><p>We are currently undertaking a review
of the provision of legal aid for inquests, due to be published by the end of the
year alongside the wider review of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders
Act 2012.</p>

<p>Staff who work within women’s prisons are able to undertake two additional training
programmes, ‘Women Awareness Staff Programme’ and ‘Sex Workers in Custody and the
Community’.</p><p>Additionally, nearly 2,000 staff in women’s prisons and providers
of community services in England and Scotland have received training on developing
‘trauma informed’ practice, which entails understanding and responding to behaviours
arising from a history of trauma.</p>

<p>Prisons are selected for closure through a well-established process including an
economic analysis that identifies those prisons that are no longer fit for purpose
in the modern prison estate and/or are most expensive to operate or maintain. The
assessment also considers the impact of closure on the ability of the National Offender
Management Service to deliver its business effectively.</p><p>Following a decision
to close a prison and it subsequently being decommissioned the Ministry of Justice
will prepare the site for disposal. At that stage, the Ministry of Justice will work
closely with the local authority and others, on future options for the site. No decisions
have yet been made about closures, other than those already announced.</p>

<p>We are aware of three organisations named as second and third tier subcontractors
to community rehabilitation companies in successful bids that have ended their contract
in 2016.</p><p> </p><p>This excludes organisations named as second and third tier
subcontractors to community rehabilitation companies with whom sub contracts were
not executed, or contracts which have reached the end of their term and expired.</p>

To ask Her Majesty's Government what contact they have had, if any, with the Birmingham
Coroner to establish what is known about the origins of the 20 skinless human bodies
being exhibited at the National Exhibition Centre; and whether inquests will be opened
to establish the facts involved in their deaths.

<p>Coroners are independent judicial office holders and as such it would be inappropriate
for Ministers to intervene in or comment upon the decisions of the Birmingham and
Solihull Senior Coroner.</p><p><br>The exhibition at the National Exhibition Centre
has been licenced by the Human Tissue Authority in line with the provisions of the
Human Tissue Act 2004. Responsibility for hosting the exhibition and maintaining ethical
standards lies with the National Exhibition Centre.</p>

<p>The Government is currently undertaking a post-implementation review of the impact
of the legal aid changes made under the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders
Act 2012. An assessment of the impact of recent changes to the provision of legal
aid for non-asylum immigration cases will be made as part of the review process.</p><p>
</p><p>We have recently announced our intention to amend the scope of legal aid for
unaccompanied and separated migrant children. This scope change will be informed by
evidence gathered as a result of the review and delivered with the help of a consultative
group.</p>

<p>Where a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) is reached for an economic crime,
it must include a declaration in open court that the DPA is in the interests of justice
and its terms are fair, reasonable and proportionate. The SFO has entered into 4 DPA’s
to date: in each case the final hearing was held in public.</p>

<p>All women transferred from Holloway were carefully assessed as part of the prison’s
closure planning. The assessment sought to ensure that they were held as close to
home as was practicable given their individual circumstances.</p>